David
Desharnais scored 30 seconds into Friday night’s game -- the first of
his three goals -- as the Bulldogs held on for a 4-3 win at Van Andel
Arena.

The loss snapped the Griffins’ four-game point streak
(2-0-2-0) and ensured that they would remain in last place, nine points
behind Abbotsford for the fourth and final playoff spot in the North
Division.

“Every game, every period, every shift is a must-win
situation,” Griffins coach Curt Fraser said. “You look at the other
teams. Cleveland and Abbotsford? They win. Manitoba? They’re winning.

“Tonight was disappointing because we got behind early instead of keeping it close.”

The
Bulldogs wasted no time jumping ahead. Only 30 seconds into the game,
Desharnais skated in on a breakaway and whizzed a high shot over the
glove of Grand Rapids goaltender Daniel Larsson.

A little more than 9 minutes later, Desharnais banged in a rebound for his second goal and a 2-0 lead.

But
Desharnais wasn’t done. Just 46 seconds into the second period, he
scored off another rebound, giving him the hat trick and the Bulldogs a
3-1 lead.

Desharnais’ last hat trick also came against the Griffins,
on April 3, 2009. In fact, the last three hat tricks allowed by Grand
Rapids have been by Hamilton players.

“That’s what we need one of our guys to do, one of our leaders,” Fraser said.

It
was an especially frustrating night for Larsson, who had gone 3-0-2
with a 1.79 goals-against average and .938 save percentage in his past
five games after a dismal 2-10-0 run that stretched from Dec. 20-Jan.
29. He finished with 30 saves.

“It was a rough game. I let in a
couple easy goals,” Larsson said. “We didn’t play as good as we did the
other games and didn’t fight as much as we did then.”

Trailing 4-1 early in the third, the Griffins rallied.

Francis
Pare was credited with a goal 5:41 into the third -- although it
appeared Hamilton defenseman Alex Henry accidentally knocked the puck
into the net -- and Jeremy Williams scored with 9:22 left in the game to
pull Grand Rapids to within a goal.

But that’s as close as the Griffins could get.

The Bulldogs’ Grant Stevenson scored what proved to be the game-winning goal 1:42 into the third.

Fraser
said the Griffins did a number of good things -- they killed off both of
Hamilton’s power play chances, for example -- but they can’t keep
playing from behind.

“Now it’s time for the leaders of our hockey
club to find a way to be better,” Fraser said. “Are they OK? Yeah,
they’re working hard. But they need to be better. They need to start
winning us games here.

“You play a good third period, that’s not good enough. Sixty minutes is what’s required.”

Trailing
2-0 with 3:11 remaining in the first, Jan Mursak chased down a long
pass from Mattias Ritola and backhanded a shot past Hamilton goaltender
Curtis Sanford for his team-leading 19th goal of the season.

“We
didn’t play a good, full game today. We played good in the third
period, but it cost us a game,” Mursak said. “We almost came back, but
we’re lucky we scored those two goals.”

Griffins notesThe Griffins’
Feb. 28 game at Lake Erie has been rescheduled for 3 p.m. It originally
was set to start at 4 p.m. ... Williams’ goal gave him points in seven
of the past eight games (three goals, six assists). With an assist on
Mursak’s goal, Ritola now has points in three of his past four games
(three assists). ... Grand Rapids has stopped its opponents’ past 14
power-play chances, and is 43-for-46 on the penalty kill in their past
12 games. In the 11 games that preceded it, it allowed 15 goals on 51
chances.